North Jersey doctors easing the pain for former pro athletes

The titanium screws protrude from his vertebrae, pointing in every direction.

The X-ray image of Christian Okoye’s neck shows the amalgam of jutting metal and bone, of a spine fused together and stabilized with 16 screws and two bars.The former Kansas City Chiefs running back was dangerously close to paralysis after he retired in 1992, left with a severely compressed spinal cord after six bruising NFL seasons.

Doctors across the nation – even those at the prestigious UCLA Medical Center – would not operate on the former All-Pro, afraid his condition was so dire that surgery itself could paralyze him, doctors said.

“I’ve never seen anyone with this type of MRI who’s been able to walk,” said Dr. Arash Emami, one of the orthopedic spine surgeons who performed the operation. “Any more progression and he would have been paralyzed.”

Surgeons performed a 5½-hour, $200,000 operation that “rebuilt” Okoye’s neck in July at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson. And they did it for free.

P.A.S.T. is a network of North Jersey-based doctors who provide medical care, pain management and behavioral health services — often on a pro bono basis for those who qualify — to former professional players who have nowhere else to turn.

Some have no insurance. Some are under-insured. And others have the means to pay, choosing the integrated care P.A.S.T. offers, with patients seeing multiple specialists on the same day.

Many of them are in desperate need of specialized care, facing the inevitable consequences of careers in the unforgiving world of pro sports, some so badly injured that they have developed painkiller addictions to numb the pain.

The list of retired athletes ranges from those in their 30s to those 60 and older, from former All-Pros like Okoye and former Miami Dolphin Mercury Morris to long-forgotten athletes like former Cleveland Indian James Clark.

“You feel like there’s hope [because of P.A.S.T.],” said Craig Sauer, 38, a former Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings linebacker who suffers from traumatic brain injury due to repetitive concussions and will undergo neck surgery in early February. “Hope is probably the biggest thing you can have.”

P.A.S.T. has donated $2 million in pro bono surgeries and medical treatment since it was formed in summer 2009 by Clifton-based gastroenterologist Dr. William Focazio, according to Jennifer Smith, director of player programs for P.A.S.T. and a longtime advocate for retired players.

Not included in that total is the expense of flying in former players from around the country, putting them up in hotels to see P.A.S.T. doctors and other costs that Focazio has paid himself, according to Smith. The organization recently launched P.A.S.T. Teams, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in the hopes of raising funds to cover those ancillary expenses.

Some retired NFL players have contended that not enough is being done by the league and the players association to help them.

“I tried to reach out to my union. I found all types of problems, all types of red tape and roadblocks,” said Randy Grimes, a Tampa Bay Buccaneers center from 1983 to 1992.

The union often hears complaints, according to Andre Collins, the NFLPA’s director of retired players.

“For a player to say we’re not doing enough, we always expect that,” said Collins, who was “happy” Grimes received the care “he deserved.” “Members will always complain and will always want us to do a better job.”

In an e-mail, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote that the NFL Player Care Foundation has committed millions to medical research and health screenings as well as bestowed grants to alumni to pay costs of Player Care programs such as joint replacement and spine treatment.

“We support all work that is being done to help retired players,” Aiello wrote.

Focazio was moved to act after discovering the staggering need, calling colleagues who also were willing to help.

“It seemed amazing to me that these guys played in front of 80,000 people, and here they are when they retire, they fill up a black garbage bag and they walk out the door by themselves,” said Focazio, the CEO and medical director of P.A.S.T. “They had all this glory before and the only thing they’re left with is the tragedy of the burdens that made them great in the game.”

Those burdens range from arthritic hips and knees that need replacement to debilitating neck and spine injuries to prescription drug addictions and biopsies.For some former players like Grimes and Ray Lucas, P.A.S.T. did nothing less than save their lives, they say.

Chronic pain debilitated them, ruining not just their health, but their relationships with family and friends. It also led to painkiller addictions.

“I’m standing before you today because of what P.A.S.T. has done, because I probably wouldn’t have been here,” said Lucas, 38, a former Rutgers and Jets quarterback. “If I would have gone on the George Washington Bridge one more time, I would have made a right [off the bridge] right in the middle of it.”

Lucas, a football analyst for SNY, ESPN Radio and the Rutgers Radio Network, spent $2,200 a month on prescription medication, he said.

He underwent major neck surgery in September at Long Island’s Franklin Hospital, which donated its facilities. He is receiving treatment for depression and chronic pain, and he will enter treatment for his pain-killer dependency at Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches in South Florida, a P.A.S.T. affiliate, when the football season ends.

Grimes was taking 600 Percocets a month and 16 mg of Xanax each night, according to Smith.

“I was done. I was ready to check out,” Grimes said. “I was ready for my next handful of pain pills to be my last.”

Grimes, 50, received six months of treatment for his addiction at Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches, which donated his care. He now works there as an interventionist and recovery coach.

Grimes also had his right knee replaced and the ACL repaired in his left knee, thanks to P.A.S.T.

The organization uses a team of doctors, overseen by department heads in a number of specialties.

“It is really a labor of love,” said Dr. Vincent McInerney, the P.A.S.T. director of orthopedics who is based in Wayne. He has treated more than 50 former players, most on a pro bono basis.

P.A.S.T. has forged relationships with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association and the National Basketball Retired Players Association.

Clark, 63, a former outfielder, found himself in McInerney’s office in December after five doctors in Southern California could not help him.

He has limped around on a bad right hip for three years and sometimes needs crutches to walk.

“My doctor said, ‘You’ve got severe arthritis. Your cartilage is almost gone,’” said Clark, who owns his own business supplying convenience stores.

But his insurance will not cover hip replacement surgery, he said. And waiting until he turns 65 to earn Medicare coverage has put his health in danger, preventing him from exercising and complicating his diabetes.

Clark will undergo hip replacement surgery in March.

His medical care was augmented by the camaraderie formed when the former athletes were brought together into small groups for appointments. That’s when men like Clark and Lucas discovered that they weren’t alone in pain.

“You’re used to pain [as an athlete]. Sometimes it becomes normal,” said Albert King, 51, a former Net who lives in Wayne and was recently examined by P.A.S.T. doctors. “So you don’t know it as pain anymore. But any pain that you have, that means something is going on that is not right. And it’s getting worse and worse.”